As those of you that hunt big ruff water know our boats take a beating. I was doing some "waiting on season blues" preseason work on my boat and noticed that the bolts that hold my trolling motor to the bow of the boat were loose. AHH! This would be a great time to move the mount to exactly where I wanted it to begin with. When I took everything up I found the holes were wallowed out and of the six screws holding it down only 3 functioned enough to do so. Heres where I ran into trouble. The deck of my boat is .100 gauge aluminum and my mount is .100 gauge alumimum. I can't get under the bow to reinforce it unless I cut out a large hole (im a big ole boy too) and crawl in to do so. SO that's one solution down. Then I thought about anchor bolts like the type that go into a concrete wall and then flip open to create a large holding area. However the holes to get the end threw would be to big in comparison to the lip on my mount. I next thought about putting a thin sheet on aluminum between the mount and the bow deck but this wouldn't help at all either. Do any of you have a solution to this problem I am haveing other than removing the trolling motor altogether?

Are the motor mounts aluminum to aluminum? Can you get some marine grade or just treated lumber to put on either side of the bow? At this point you would drill holes of an appropriate bolt size and put the lumber on either side and tighten down securily. Locking washers included. A picture or further discription would help. Also PM a Honey Hole Mod to move this question to Boats and Blinds.

"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling
into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from
falling into error."

Can you or someone you know get thier hand in far enough to install fender washers,fender washers are much wider than regular ones and distribute gripping power over a wider area.Elastic stop nuts are much better for holding tight over long periods also.
Without seeing your set up its a little difficult to judge how to fix it.

If you can weld on an aluminium plate on the bow and drill new holes that might be your answer but if you were a welder you wouldn't have to ask about how to fix it in the first place.
You could check out how much it would cost to be rewelded.

Hey, i don't have any great solutions, but I do have a word of warning about the treated plywood mentioned in one of the other solutions. The new treated lumber contain a chemical that is exrtemely corrosive to aluminum! DO NOT use material treated with CBA, ACQ2, Natural Select (and a few others I don't remember right now!) in contact with aluminum. Consult with whoever you buy your material from to see if it will disolve your boat! I don't mean to be so negative, I would just hate for you to do more damage trying to make the repair! (I am an estimater and salesman at lumber yard in Michigan, and have seen many problems with this in reguard to building materials, but it applies to boats as well) If you can find it, CCA treated lumber is o.k. to use in contact with aluminum. Is there any way to have a welding shop heli-arc (welding for aluminum) nuts to the bottom side of the deck, and then bolt the bracket down using them?

open, here is a quick fix with little involved. use some spring toggles (pic below). all you need to do is drill out the mount holes to accept the spring toggle. pinch together and insert. as you tighten the back will tight up and clamp the motor bracket to the boat. if the heads of the toggle bolts are too small, use the fender washers mentioned above. lastly, i would find some rubber washers from the plumbing section to absorb the vibration and prevent wallowing. just put the rubber washers between the bolt head and the fender washers. let me know if you need any further explanation on this. it's really easy. make sure to get stainless steel toggles/bolts to prevent rust! hth!

Fender washers is the best way to go when working with a weak metal like aluminum. Toggles are great in drywall for concrete block, but they will bit into that aluminum and leave distorted places. As it lossen and your retighten it will keep bending it more. Get nylon lock nuts and fender washers or use the blue locktight to make sure boat vibrations don't shake it loose. That is probably why your holes are deformed.